{"id":33449,"date":"2016-10-18T06:30:43","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T17:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=33449"},"modified":"2016-10-16T22:41:42","modified_gmt":"2016-10-16T09:41:42","slug":"tuesday-poetry-the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-excerpt-by-samuel-taylor-coleridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2016\/10\/18\/tuesday-poetry-the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-excerpt-by-samuel-taylor-coleridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Poetry: “The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner” (Excerpt) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner<\/em><\/h3>\n

How a Ship having passed the Line was driven by storms to the cold Country towards the South Pole; and how from thence she made her course to the tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that befell; and in what manner the Ancient Mariner came back to his own Country.<\/em><\/p>\n

Part 1:<\/h4>\n
It is an ancient Mariner,<\/div>\n
And he stoppeth one of three.<\/div>\n
‘By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,<\/div>\n
Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The Bridegroom’s doors are opened wide,<\/div>\n
And I am next of kin;<\/div>\n
The guests are met, the feast is set:<\/div>\n
May’st hear the merry din.’
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
He holds him with his skinny hand,<\/div>\n
‘There was a ship,’ quoth he.<\/div>\n
‘Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!’<\/div>\n
Eftsoons his hand dropt he.
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
He holds him with his glittering eye\u2014<\/div>\n
The Wedding-Guest stood still,<\/div>\n
And listens like a three years’ child:<\/div>\n
The Mariner hath his will.
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:<\/div>\n
He cannot choose but hear;<\/div>\n
And thus spake on that ancient man,<\/div>\n
The bright-eyed Mariner.
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
‘The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,<\/div>\n
Merrily did we drop<\/div>\n
Below the kirk, below the hill,<\/div>\n
Below the lighthouse top.
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The Sun came up upon the left,<\/div>\n
Out of the sea came he!<\/div>\n
And he shone bright, and on the right<\/div>\n
Went down into the sea.
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Higher and higher every day,<\/div>\n
Till over the mast at noon\u2014’<\/div>\n
The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,<\/div>\n
For he heard the loud bassoon.
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The bride hath paced into the hall,<\/div>\n
Red as a rose is she;<\/div>\n
Nodding their heads before her goes<\/div>\n
The merry minstrelsy.
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,<\/div>\n
Yet he cannot choose but hear;<\/div>\n
And thus spake on that ancient man,<\/div>\n
The bright-eyed Mariner.
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And now the STORM-BLAST came, and he<\/div>\n
Was tyrannous and strong:<\/div>\n
He struck with his o’ertaking wings,<\/div>\n
And chased us south along.
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
With sloping masts and dipping prow,<\/div>\n
As who pursued with yell and blow<\/div>\n
Still treads the shadow of his foe,<\/div>\n
And forward bends his head,<\/div>\n
The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,<\/div>\n
And southward aye we fled.
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And now there came both mist and snow,<\/div>\n
And it grew wondrous cold:<\/div>\n
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,<\/div>\n
As green as emerald.
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And through the drifts the snowy clifts<\/div>\n
Did send a dismal sheen:<\/div>\n
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken\u2014<\/div>\n
The ice was all between.
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The ice was here, the ice was there,<\/div>\n
The ice was all around:<\/div>\n
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,<\/div>\n
Like noises in a swound!
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
At length did cross an Albatross,<\/div>\n
Thorough the fog it came;<\/div>\n
As if it had been a Christian soul,<\/div>\n
We hailed it in God’s name.
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It ate the food it ne’er had eat,<\/div>\n
And round and round it flew.<\/div>\n
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;<\/div>\n
The helmsman steered us through!
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And a good south wind sprung up behind;<\/div>\n
The Albatross did follow,<\/div>\n
And every day, for food or play,<\/div>\n
Came to the mariner’s hollo!
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,<\/div>\n
It perched for vespers nine;<\/div>\n
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,<\/div>\n
Glimmered the white Moon-shine.’
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
‘God save thee, ancient Mariner!<\/div>\n
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!\u2014<\/div>\n
Why look’st thou so?’\u2014With my cross-bow<\/div>\n
I shot the albatross.
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
by<\/em> Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772 – 1834<\/div>\n
\u00a0.<\/span><\/div>\n
—<\/div>\n

Recently, I have begun featuring poems that are themed around the sea, and there can be few more famous sea poems than Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I have featured Part 1 today, but you can read the whole poem on the Poetry Foundation’s website:<\/p>\n

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner<\/a><\/p>\n

There is also a full biography of Coleridge:<\/p>\n

Samuel Taylor Coleridge<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prior \u2018Sea\u2019 Poems include:<\/h4>\n

\u201cThe Sea\u201d by Tim Jones<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDover Beach\u201d (Excerpt) by Matthew Arnold<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBreathing You In\u201d by David Gregory<\/a><\/p>\n

“We are more than half water” by Helen Rickerby<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner How a Ship having passed the Line was driven by storms to the cold Country towards the South Pole; and how from thence she made her course to the tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that befell; and in what manner the Ancient […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33449"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33452,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33449\/revisions\/33452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}